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Monday, December 26, 2011

a castle on a cloud

i tend to collect pictures, and i usually don't write down where i get them.

(so for the sake of attributing these... none of them belong to me... but i don't remember where i got them. oops.)

***

now if anyone else out there is like me - and LOVES hot chocolate... but for the sheer fact that i would sit and drink cupfull after cupfull... (calorie counters cringe at the thought)

i found this to be a good alternative.

and homemade. (gotta love that, huh?!)

homemade sugar free/ fat free hot chocolate

3 cups instant powdered milk

1 cup splenda

1/2 cup baking cocoa

1 sm. sugar free/fat free jello vanilla pudding, instant

mix all of the ingredients in a gallon size zip lock bag and close bag - mix. store in air tight container or the zip lock baggie. to make a cup of hot chocolate, use 1/4 cup of mix to 1 cup of hot water.

serves 18

i also have a fetish with mugs. i want this one.

...or for a single serving (i mean... am i really going to make 18 servings worth of hot chocolate???)

1 cup non-dairy milk (you can also use unsweetened almond milk)

4 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

2 packets stevia

Optional: pinch of cinnamon and a dash of vanilla

first measure out one cup of milk, and then transfer 2 tbsp of it to a mug. Heat the rest of the milk on the stove top or in the microwave (it took me about one and a half minutes in the microwave) until steaming but not boiling.

while the milk is heating up, add the cocoa, stevia, vanilla and cinnamon to the 2 tbsp milk in the mug. stir it together until it forms a chocolaty paste.

once the milk is heated up, add it to the chocolaty paste and stir till combined. just whirl a whisk between your hands back and forth to froth it up if desired.

***

i bet there is no better remedy for a stuffy head and sore throat than a hot cup of chocolate and nice warm toes by the fire errr... space heater? (we'll just pretend for imagination's sake, shall we?)

our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. it is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
we ask ourselves, who am i to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? actually, who are you NOT to be?
you are a child of god. your playing small doesn't serve teh world. there's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. we are all meant to shine, as children do. we are born to make manifest the glory of god that is within us.
it's not just in some of us, it's in everyone.
and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. as we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
marianne williamson (21st century spiritual leader)

ya wanna find somethin?

ain't it the truth!

don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life. ~bertolt brecht

to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~e.e. cummings

life is pretty simple: you do some stuff. most fails. some works. you do more of what works. if it works big, others quickly copy it. then you do something else. the trick is the doing something else. ~leonardo da vinci

in three words, i can sum up everything i've learned about life: it goes on. ~robert frost

fortune and love befriend the bold. ~ovid

don't worry if you have built your castles in the air. they are where they should be. now put the foundations under them. ~henry david thoreau

there is nothing more attractive than a nice smile.

~charles m. schulz

even if you cannot sing well, sing. ~rebbe nachman

when you are squeezed, what comes out is what is inside. ~wayne dyer

carry yourself like a queen and you'll attract a king.

make room for the new you. ~edward w. smith

i read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. it never crossed my mind that that person could be me. ~anna quindlen

write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. ~ralph waldo emerson

you look up at the sky and you cry for a star! you know you'll never get it... and then one night you look down - and there it is - shining in your hand! ~lizzie curry "the rainmaker"